Profile of the Chair Media Sociology

Late modern society is strictly dependent on media technologies and (audio-visual) mass media. On the one hand, this has led to an operative assimilation and structural shift in various areas of society; on the other, it has formed novel modes of thought and imagination, forms of action and cultures of practice on the part of the individual.

Against this background, Media Sociology is concerned with the complex interdependencies between (mass) media, society and the individual; the subject provides both a phenomenological and a functional analysis of the relationship between the structure of societies and the evolution of media – with a fundamental historical sense. In addition, it reflects on the current conditions and effects of media change, medialization and media society. Finally, epistemic interest aims empirically at multifarious individual and collective media activity, at situational problem-solving media practice and at the autonomous transformation of media techniques.

Andreas Ziemann is Chair of Media Sociology since 2009. His major research interests are the complex interactions between media, society and individuals. Thereby he has a strong focus on history, evolution and structures of the contemporary society, on analysis of communications and situations or on sociology of culture (e.g. social exclusion and heterotopia).

Ekkehard Knopke is a research assistant at the chair of Media Sociology since 2016. Currently he works on his PhD about the interdependence of time, culture and burying. His research foci are Cultural Sociology, Music Sociology, Sociology of Emotions, Media Theory as well as Death Studies.